The United Nations’ International Day of the World's Indigenous People is observed on August 9 each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population.

This event recognizes the achievements and contributions made by Indigenous Peoples. The commemoration takes place on August 9 in recognition of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva in 1982.

Indigenous peoples have sought recognition of their identities, way of life and their right to traditional lands, territories and natural resources for years, yet throughout history; their rights have always been violated. Indigenous peoples today, are arguably among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in the world. The international community now recognizes that special measures are required to protect their rights and maintain their distinct cultures and way of life.

2017 Theme: 10th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Ten years ago, on 13 September 2007, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a major milestone with respect to the cooperation and solidarity between indigenous peoples and Member States.

The Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. It embodies global consensus on the rights of indigenous peoples and establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for their survival, dignity and well-being. It elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms, as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples.

Over the last decade, the implementation of the Declaration has achieved some major successes in at the national, regional and international levels. Despite the achievements, there continues to be a gap between the formal recognition of indigenous peoples and the implementation of policies on the ground. Read more about this year's observance.

On Twitter, follow #WeAreIndigenous and @UN4Indigenous

2016

This year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is devoted to the right to education.

The right of Indigenous peoples to education is protected by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which in Article 14 states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.”

In spite of these instruments, the right to education has not been fully realized for most Indigenous peoples, and a critical education gap exists between Indigenous peoples and the general population.

Where data exist, they show consistent and persistent disparities between the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous population in terms of educational access, retention and achievement, in all regions of the world.

The education sector not only mirrors the historical abuses, discrimination and marginalization suffered by Indigenous peoples, but also reflects their continued struggle for equality and respect for their rights as peoples and as individuals.

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The United Nations’ International Day of the World's Indigenous People is observed on August 9 each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population. This event recognizes the achievements and contributions made by Indigenous Peoples. That said, odds are your local newspaper, radio station are not covering this story. That said, seek out the Twitter hashtags #IndigenousDay, #UNIndigenousDay, #WeAreIndigenous, #DíaInternacionalDeLosPueblosIndígenas and you'll find some great resources.

There have been powerful lessons taught during Indigenous Peoples Week, our annual celebration that explores travel and tourism. Aboriginal and Indigenous tourism providers - guides, artisans, tour operators - have a lot to say about the protection of cultural patrimony and what to share and where to share culture online.

How could we improve the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples?

This year's theme puts a spotlight on the issue of indigenous peoples' access to health care services, as improving indigenous peoples’ health remains a critical challenge for indigenous peoples, Member States and the United Nations. The “State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Volume II”, which will be launched at the UN Headquarters event in observance of the International Day, provides important background information on the topic.

The observance of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples at UN Headquarters will take place on Monday, 10 August 2015, in the ECOSOC Chamber, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The event will be webcast live on webtv.un.org. Read the Press Release.

This year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, observed on 9 August, puts a spotlight on the issue of indigenous peoples’ access to health care services.

In a message to mark the Day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I call on the international community to ensure that they are not left behind. To create a better, more equitable future, let us commit to do more to improve the health and well-being of indigenous peoples.”

A special event will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday, 10 August, from 3 to 6 p.m., under the theme “Post-2015 Agenda: Ensuring indigenous peoples’ health and well-being”. Speaking on the occasion are Mr. Ban; Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and senior official to coordinate the follow-up to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples; and Megan Davis, Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The observance will also include the launch of the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Volume II, on health, with remarks by authors and editors of the publication: Priscilla Migiro, a paediatrician from Kenya, Mukta Lama, from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tribhuvan University in Nepal, and Jeffrey Reading, from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Volume II, which was authored by six independent experts and produced by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, examines the major challenges indigenous peoples face in terms of adequate access to and utilization of quality health care services.

According to the authors, indigenous peoples face a myriad of obstacles when accessing public health systems, such as the lack of facilities in their communities, language barriers, illiteracy and a lack of understanding of their culture and traditional practices. Also absent are adequate health insurance and the lack of economic capacity to pay for services. As a result, they often cannot afford health services even if available.

The publication cites numerous examples of health gaps between indigenous peoples and non-indigenous populations living in the same countries, including significantly shorter life expectancy, elevated prevalence of infectious diseases and higher rates of malnutrition and child mortality. Indigenous peoples are also more likely to suffer from substance abuse and depression and other mental disorders than their non-indigenous counterparts.

The challenges related to improving indigenous peoples’ health are linked to social, cultural, economic and political factors, including inadequate education, disproportionate poverty and discrimination in the health service delivery. As such, the report calls for the development of specific health care concepts and targeted interventions tailored to their needs. The first United Nations publication on the state of the world’s indigenous peoples was published in 2009 and revealed alarming statistics on poverty, health, education, employment, human rights, the environment and more.

There are an estimated 370 million indigenous people in 90 countries around the world. Practicing unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, recognizes indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and their right to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Article 24 of the Declaration states that “indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” and that “States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right”.

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is commemorated annually on August 9, in recognition of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, held in Geneva in 1982. The International Day was first proclaimed by the General Assembly in December 1994.

United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples, which was created in 1985 to support indigenous participation at the Organization. Over the past 30 years, around 2,000 indigenous people have received a grant from the Fund. A brief video about the Fund, produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, will be screened at the observance at Headquarters on 10 August.

21 July 2014 – The new global sustainable development agenda that Members States are currently working on must include specific references to indigenous peoples and the challenges they face, a group of United Nations experts stated today.“Indigenous peoples face distinct development challenges, and fare worse in terms of social and economic development than non-indigenous sectors of the population in nearly all of the countries they live in,” the experts said in a news release.“However, they can also contribute significantly to achieving the objectives of sustainable development because of their traditional knowledge systems on natural resource management which have sustained some of the world’s more intact, diverse ecosystems up to the present.”The experts speaking out on this issue are Dalee Sambo Dorough, the current chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Albert Deterville, who heads the five-member Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the new UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples.Member States are working on elaborating a set of sustainable development goals that will follow the targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.The MDGs – covering a range of poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, education and environmental indicators – have been the most successful global anti-poverty push in history. Several targets have already been met, such as halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, and it is expected that more targets will be reached by the end of 2015.The post-2015 development agenda seeks to address any unfinished business of the MDGs and new challenges and complexities facing the world with sustainable development at its core and poverty eradication as its highest priority.The experts noted with concern that all references to ‘indigenous peoples’ have been deleted in the latest draft document being discussed by the open-ended Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, even though the term had been included in earlier drafts.The Working Group, which met last week in New York, is tasked with drafting the sustainable development goals which will be presented to the General Assembly in September.“Using the term ‘indigenous and local communities’ undermines the gains achieved by indigenous peoples regarding their assertion of their distinct status and identity as peoples and the rights accorded to them under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international instruments,” the experts said.They urged Member States in the open-ended Working Group to listen to the proposals made by indigenous peoples’ representatives and to ensure that the term ‘indigenous peoples’ will be used consistently in the outcome document.“It has been widely acknowledged that indigenous peoples have not been accorded the attention they deserve in national development processes and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” the experts said.“The new Sustainable Development Goals present a unique opportunity to remedy these shortcomings and the historical injustices resulting from racism, discrimination and inequalities long suffered by indigenous peoples across the world,” they underscored.